Our Lives
by adricbecauseadric
Summary: Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Harry Potter share their lives.
1. Chapter 1

Harry Potter is pressing his fingers to the sides of his head and looking at the sticky gummy residue, and he can hear his aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon out in the hallway, and Petunia is clucking her tongue and Vernon is grumbling about having to get glasses for that good-for-nothing boy, and Harry shrinks in on himself until no one can get in and no one can hurt him.

***Ron

Ron Weasley is cuddling his stuffed bear Pendragon, when all of a sudden, it isn't Pendragon anymore, it's a huge squirmy spider, and it's got enormous fangs, and Ron screams and tries to back away from it, and Fred and George are laughing at him, and Ron doesn't stop screaming until his mum comes and turns the spider back into Pendragon with her wand and puts both twins in the corner, but even so, Ron doesn't touch his bear again.

***Hermione

Hermione Granger is curled up in her daddy's big armchair, and she's mouthing her way through Peter Rabbit while Mummy and Daddy are out doing whatever boring thing boring adults do, and when Hermione finishes Peter Rabbit she slides out of the big chair and goes into her bedroom and changes into her nightgown before she tucks herself into bed and reads herself a bed time story.

***Harry

Harry Potter is starting kindergarten and he can feel the other kids staring at him in Ms. Jennis' classroom in his too-big Transformers shirt and blue shorts, and he's the only kid in their without a mum, and he doesn't know anyone in here because Dudley's in the other kindergarten, and he can already tell school isn't going to be fun like the books say it is because of the way the teacher is looking at him like he's something funny that grows on the wall, and Harry curls a little more into himself, and his clothes look a little more baggy.

***Ron

Ron Weasley is looking out the window at all the muggle children going to muggle schools, and he wonders how come he and his brothers (and his sister, but she's only three) don't go to muggle school, and then Mum's calling him to come downstairs because Bill and Charlie are going to be late for the train, so Ron comes out of his room and resolves to ask his Dad about it later, but Charlie's friend-who-is-a-boy shows them all a spider, and the spider jumps on Ron, and he forgets what he was supposed to remember when John, Charlie's friend-who-is-a-boy, is trying to hex the spider off and giving him a packet of Droobles after.

***Hermione

Hermione Granger is walking down the hill to her school and double-checking that her backpack has all the things Ms. Lacing told her to bring, which were pens, markers, crayons, and colored pencils, and Hermione hopes that means she gets to draw because she's good at drawing, her Mum always tells her that, and Hermione can already tell she did something wrong when she gets to the school and all the other little girls are standing outside Ms. Lacing's room with a Mum or Dad, and Hermione starts to think of her mum and dad, who are orthodontists during the school year, and how right now her mum and dad are sitting around the kitchen table, signing papers and yelling about Hermione.

***Harry

Harry Potter is sitting in his cupboard, thinking about what he did, which he isn't sure what, but Uncle Vernon boxed his ears for it and that must mean it's bad, whatever it is, so Harry promises to himself that he won't let it happen again, and holds one of Dudley's old shirts from kindergarten against the sides of his head, and he goes to a place deep inside him where no one is going to hurt him, and he promises to himself not to let anyone see what's in there.

***Ron

Ron Weasley watches his brother Percy get his letter, and Percy acts ridiculously proud, and he struts about the house the rest of the day, yelling at Ron and Ginny, and then Charlie yells back at him, and then Ron goes and sits on the flat part of the roof, and he wonders if Percy and them would be proud if he went to muggle school and learned what the muggle children learn, which Percy and Bill and Charlie and Fred and George haven't done, which would make Ron stand out in his family of ginger freckled less-than-well-off wizard family.

***Hermione

Hermione Granger is going on the train to her dad's, sitting next to an old man who smells like peppermints and her mum's cleaning products, and she's reading a book she found in the big kids section of the school library called The Great Gatsby, and she's trying not to read too fast because her class is only up to chapter four, and Hermione's on eight, and then Hermione looks out the window and there's a unicorn galloping next to the train in the woods, a real live one, and Hermione wants to tell someone, but no one's in her compartment except for the old man, and he's snoring, so Hermione just keeps watching the unicorn through the window.

***Harry

Harry Potter is pretty sure that he wasn't supposed to end up on the roof of the school, but he doesn't know how he ended up there, only that Dudley's gang had almost caught him, and he wanted to get away from him, so when he was hiding behind the trash cans, the wind must have lifted him up, but Uncle Vernon is having none of that, so he boxed Harry's ears and sent him to his cupboard, and then Dudley jumped up and down on the stairs and shook plaster into Harry's eyes, and Harry could hear Uncle Vernon grumbling about that no-good boy, and Aunt Petunia clucking as she makes some tea, and Harry goes to his safe place, where he grew up with a mum and a dad who loved him and didn't make him sleep in a cupboard and didn't punish him when he did things wrong.

***Ron

Ron Weasley was sending an owl to Charlie, who's at his first job ever, and asked him about if he was taking dragons, like Bill was, or being an ambassador to a far-off country, like Percy said he'd be, when an owl landed on the ledge outside the kitchen window, and Fred and George skid into the kitchen, and they're both grinning like madmen when they take their letters and yell, "Dear Mr. Weasley- We are pleased to inform you- that you have been accepted to- Hogwarts School- Of Witchcraft and Wizardry!", and Mum comes in and hugs them both, and then Fred snatches Errol out of Ron's hand, even though it's Ron's day to send letters, and he complains, but Mum glares at him, and Fred and George write to Charlie together, even though Ron was writing to Charlie, and then Fred and George start laughing at Ron when he cries that he was supposed to get to send letters, and he gets grounded instead of Fred and George.

***Hermione

Hermione Granger is wondering what about her makes her different from the other girls, since she has a mum and a dad, and they're not divorced yet, and she does take pills, but only once a day, and not like how Mum used to take them, and her new dad, Joe, is more normal than her old dad, and Joe is an orthodontist too, not just during school, and Hermione hasn't seen anything in a while, not since the mermaid she saw when she was snorkeling in the middle of a lake, and Hermione didn't even tell anyone about that, so it can't be that, but no one she knows wants to be friends with her.

***Harry

Harry Potter is making breakfast for Dudley's eleventh birthday, bacon, which is Dudley's favorite, when Dudley runs down the stairs and shoves Harry down onto the pan, which makes Harry's face tingle, but it isn't burned because Petunia isn't chastising Dudley, which is what happens, so Harry finishes making the bacon, and he gives Dudley and Vernon three fat slices, because Aunt Petunia doesn't like bacon, so Harry is left with two crumbly burnt pieces, and a little after that Harry learns he's going to the zoo instead of being locked in his cupboard, but that little place inside Harry is still protected and safe from what Dudley and his friend Piers are planning.

***Ron

Ron is sitting with his dad at he Ministry, because Ron won't get his letter until June, and he doesn't want to hang out with Fred and George anymore, because they always snatch Errol away from him to write to their school friends even when it's Ron's turn and he hasn't written to Charlie in ages, but at the ministry everyone knows his name, and sometimes old witches will give him chocolate frogs because they like him, and Ron started collecting, and when Ron got home Fred and George had their faces stuffed with chocolates, and they told him Charlie had sent him a box of chocolate frogs but he wasn't home so they ate them, but he still got the cards, except Fred and George had switched out all the rare ones with Albus Dumbledore, and they even told him so, but Dad won't do anything unless Mum's home, and Mum never does anything.

***Hermione

Hermione Granger is no longer taking her pills every day, because she doesn't need them, thank you very much, and she can swing the highest on the playground, and when the bell rings to go inside, she jumps, and no one ever jumps from that high, and Hermione just sort of floats to the ground, and her skirt doesn't even ruffle, but instead of being impressed with her, like the kids were supposed to be, they all start whispering to each other about her, and Hermione feels the same way she felt on her first day of kindergarten and all the parents looked at her funny.

***Harry

Harry Potter is making sure that it's all real, from the letter in his hand to the giant standing in front of him, when Vernon opens his mouth, and suddenly it's an explosion, Vernon is yelling at Hagrid, Hagrid is yelling back, Harry is trembling, staring at the letter, and nothing seems terribly clear except for the emerald-green ink and the memo scrawled on, saying good luck, and then suddenly everything is quiet, except for Hagrid grumbling that he'll be back for Harry in the morning, and then Hagrid leaves, and the door is back on its hinges, and Vernon is boxing Harry's ears for opening the envelope, and Harry hopes morning comes soon.

***Ron

Ron Weasley is extremely proud of himself to have gotten his Hogwarts letter, and he sends the Hogwarts owl back with his prompt reply (yes), and he even has Errol for today so he writes to Charlie about what's happened, because Charlie is the only one who cares about it, and Mum is watching the twins practice potions, so no one knows Ron even got his letter, except Ginny, because Ginny always watches what happens to Ron.

***Hermione

Hermione Granger was staring at the letter in her hands, with the emerald-green ink addressed to her, and she looked around for her mum or Joe to tell that she was a witch, but neither one of them was home, so she scrawled a reply in ballpoint pen on the back of the letter saying she didn't know where to get her things, and sent it back with the owl, leaving her holding what little proof she had, her list of school supplies, to be bought at somewhere called Diagon Alley.

***Harry

Harry Potter was looking at everything in Diagon Alley, the wizard shopping center, and he just got his money from Gringotts, and Hagrid's getting an ice cream, so Harry's getting his robes, and he's standing up with his arms straight out, like the boy standing next to him, who reminds him of Dudley, which Harry doesn't like, so as soon as he gets his robes and pays he hurries out of the shop and into the ice cream parlor, where he can see Hagrid waiting for him, and Harry's nervous of all the wizards and witches that shake his hand for the rest of the day.

***Ron

Ron Weasley is in Diagon Alley with his dad, because his mum's busy with the twins, and his dad decided that he needed to spend a little time with Ron alone, and so far Ron's having a pretty good time being alone with his dad and just wandering around Diagon Alley, and his dad got him a wand, which Ron is using to shoot flowers out of, at least until he accidentally shoots out a bunch of roses into the face of another new student who's shopping, and they both blush and stammer so much that Ron's dad has to grab his son by the shoulders and steer him away, and Ron is thinking about how he didn't really mind standing there and stammering with the witch.

***Hermione

Hermione Granger is shopping with a ministry representative the school sent, and he introduces himself as John Weasley, and Hermione is having a really good time, especially in the book store, where they have loads of books, and every thing is so amazing, and then when she's walking back from Ollivander's, a young wizard with shocking red hair shoots red roses out of his wand at her, and they both stand there stammering for a few minutes, while John talks to the wizard's father, and when Hermione is back at her parents' house she's wondering if maybe she'll meet the young wizard again.

***Harry

Harry Potter is wandering through the train station with a young witch he met, whose name is Hermione who also can't find platform 9 3/4, and then they come across a family that all have the reddest hair you can imagine, and Hermione mentions that she recognizes one, so Harry goes up and asks the family how to get to the platform, and he runs straight at the wall like the twins did, and suddenly he's looking at an enormous red steam engine, and the two older boys who went through first help him with his luggage, and Harry thinks they're pretty cool, kind of, and then the younger boy comes into the compartment, and Harry figures he's cooler than his older brothers, and Harry's a bit less nervous about school.

***Ron

Ron Weasley cannot believe that he is sitting next to the Harry Potter, the boy who lived, and he has to wonder what's happening, and if he's dreaming, because surely the Harry Potter wouldn't want to sit next to a Weasley, the least important Weasley, and Ron is sure he's dreaming when the Harry Potter turns down a Malfoy's offer of friendship for his, and Ron is absolutely positive he's dreaming when Harry Potter looks at him like Ron's the only person in the world he can trust, and Ron knows there is no way this is real life when he and the Harry Potter become best friends.

***Hermione

Hermione Granger is thinking that maybe she should have sat in another compartment, because the one she's sitting in right now is most certainly not the one for her, with a girl and a boy who're ahead of her and can't stop kissing, and a silvery-blonde girl who is reading a magazine upside-down, red-haired twins who're whispering to each other and laughing mischievously, and a black-haired teen sitting next to them who's making faces, and Hermione already knows that she's not going to fit in here any better than at her old schools.


	2. Chapter 2

***Harry  
Harry Potter licks his palm and nervously pushes his hair flat on his forehead. The witch he met, Hermione, is standing a little bit behind him and Ron, spouting off facts about Hogwarts she read in a book. Harry didn't mind her, but she's acting a bit too stuck up for him. He glances at the teacher's table. There's a wizard up there, he's got a hooked nose and greasy hair. He's glaring at Harry, and all of a sudden, Harry's got an enormous headache, and not like the ones Uncle Vernon would give him. His scar is aching, but he keeps standing.  
***Ron  
Ron Weasley is sitting on the sorting stool as Professor McGonagall lowers the sorting hat onto his head. Harry just got sorted into Gryffindor, and Ron's kind-of-hoping-kind-of-not that he'll be in Gryffindor too.  
"Tricky, tricky," the hat muses.  
"I bet you say that to all the wizards," Ron can't help himself. He's got a bit of the twins in him.  
"Hufflepuff, or Gryffindor, is the real question. So loyal to your friends, yet so brave in the face of adversity...hmm...GRYFFINDOR!"  
Harry starts applauding, the claps loose and echoey in the silent room.  
No one cheers for the youngest son.  
***Hermione  
Hermione Granger is on the edge of the stool as the hat hmms and hums. She is absolutely determined not to interrupt, in case the hat is some sort of important magical artifact.  
"Oh, do get on with it!" She snaps eventually, shocking the hat so that it jumps several inches off her head.  
"Gryffindor it is!" The hat called, sounding pleased.  
***Harry  
Harry Potter feels bad for Ron, who walks to the table with only Harry cheering. Percy and Fred and George and all of them are trying to talk to Harry while he's trying to talk to Ron while Hermione's trying to talk to Percy while Angelina's trying to talk to Fred while Neville is trying to talk to Hermione while Harry's scar is burning as he looks at the man next to Professor Snape.  
***Ron  
Ron Weasley is lying on his side facing away from Harry Potter. Fred and George and Percy and everyone likes Harry Potter better. What are they going to call him when they see him with Harry, the tall one? The ginger? That Weasley boy?  
Ron doesn't want to be That Weasley Boy or The Ginger or The Tall One. He just wants to be Ron Weasley.  
***Hermione  
Hermione Granger is certain that she doesn't belong in this house just by looking at the other girls that . All of them are bragging or telling stories, or explaining how they got their scars. Hermione just ducks under the covers and rereads her textbooks.  
***Harry  
Harry Potter is a tiny bit nervous of his new potions professor, who looks as though he wouldn't mind boxing Harry's ears like Uncle Vernon does, which makes Harry a bit more nervous of taking lessons in magic in a dusty old castle.  
Harry doesn't raise his hand often.  
***Ron  
Ron Weasley is a bit peeved at the potions professor's attitude towards Harry, who really honestly hadn't done anything wrong, and got two points taken away from him anyways.  
Ron would tell Harry that it isn't a big deal to have two points taken away, but he honestly doesn't mind being the one with more experience for once.  
***Hermione  
Hermione Granger can feel the glares of other Gryffindors in potions as she raises her hand, even though it is physically impossible to "feel" someone staring at you, she can tell that they're all also thinking that she doesn't belong in this house full of warriors, when she only ever hears of brave deeds in her books.  
***Harry  
Harry Potter is quite possibly having the best Halloween ever, which is what makes him sure it's a dream, because surely soon Aunt Petunia is going to bang on his door and tell him not to leave his cupboard because she and Vernon are going out trick-or-treating with " ickle Duddykins", but that doesn't happen, so Harry's pretty sure he might unfurl a bit until all of a sudden, the Defense Againsy the Dark Arts teacher bursts into the great hall yelling about a troll.  
***Ron  
Ron Weasley is quite possibly having the worst Halloween ever, because Fred and George had cursed him that morning, so he was constantly forgetting what was happening, and everyone made fun of him for being slow in potions, and then Professor Quirrell yelled something about a troll, and then Harry told him that they had to get Hermione out of the bathrooms, which is when Ron remembers her.  
***Hermione  
Hermione Granger is in a state of total and utter panic. She's cornered in a small room with a great looming beast of a mountain troll bearing down on her, and she's certain it's about to kill her when suddenly, Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley burst into the girls' lavatories and take down the troll, and when Professor McGonagall is about to reprimand them, Hermione steps out like an idiot and confesses that she tried to defeat the mountain troll herself, and Professor McGonagall gives Gryffindor only five points total, but Hermione's okay with that because Ron and Harry walk her back to the girls' dorms and tell her they'll see her tomorrow.  
***Harry  
Harry Potter isn't entirely sure how it happened, but it seems that he and Ron have become friends with Hermione. Not that Harry minds having another friend, of course, but he doesn't entirely trust Hermione quite yet, and she kind of looks like a Aunt Petunia.  
***Ron  
Ron Weasley is pretty happy to be staying at Hogwarts over the holidays. Harry wouldn't go back to his aunt and uncle's place, even though he kept trembling and glancing around him.  
***Hermione  
Hermione Granger can already tell that Harry was supposed to go back to his aunt and uncle's house for the holidays. At the Christmas feast, whenever someone sets off a popper, Harry jumps. He doesn't take any poppers himself, and looks slightly terrified when Hermione and Ron pull theirs.  
***Harry  
Harry Potter is pretty sure that he, Ron, and Hermione shouldn't be sneaking to the library under the invisibility cloak, but it's pretty funny when Peeves gets scared off when he quotes the Bloody Baron.  
***Ron  
Ron Weasley is positive that this is one of the things Fred and George would do, which is why he doesn't mind doing it all that much.  
Until the book screams.  
***Hermione  
Hermione Granger knows this is her fault. If she wasn't so hell-bent on knowing who Nicolas Flamel was, she wouldn't have gotten Harry and Ron caught by Finch.  
***Harry  
Harry Potter is sure that he, Ron, and Hermione shouldn't be sneaking around to find out what Snape's up to, but he really has to stop him. He's been threatening Harry's favorite professor, Quirrell, and he doesn't want Snape to hurt anyone else.  
***Ron  
Ron Weasley is terrified when he realizes what he has to do. He has to sacrifice himself so that Harry and Hermione can go in and stop Snape from whatever he's doing.  
Then he passes out.  
***Hermione  
Hermione Granger is pretty sure she knows what's going on. She should tell Harry, but their friendship is still tentative. She tilts her head back and swallows.  
Fire still hurts.  
***Harry  
Harry Potter is shriveling up inside. He trusted Quirrell, and he's working for the man that gave Harry his scar. Harry's not quite sure how to handle this, but the stone is heavy in his pocket, and Quirrell is reaching for him, and all of a sudden his skin is boiling, burning, and his eyes are going out of focus, and when Harry's head hits the ground, blood starts leaking out of his ears.  
***Ron  
Ron Weasley is watching Harry Potter get levitated up to the hospital wing with blood leaking out of his ears. Which is how Ron Weasley knows it's a dream. Harry Potter cannot be dying.  
***Hermione  
Hermione Granger is sitting next to a bed in the hospital wing, watching Harry sleep. She can't tell whether or not he'll wake up.  
She's scared, kind of.  
***Harry  
Harry Potter is waking up, and he gets the feeling that it's been a few days. Professor Dumbledore is sitting in a chair at the foot of the bed, and he's digging in a basket on Harry's bedside table.  
"Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. Most of these usually end poorly. You get flavors like earwax and bogey sneaking behind the spun sugars."  
***Ron  
Harry tells Ron Weasley he likes the Chocolate Frogs. He even gives Ron Balthazar, which is great.  
***Hermione  
Hermione Granger is so pleased Harry's woken up, she lets him copy off her homework for a month and a half. Never mind the consequences.  
***Harry  
Harry Potter is not pleased with the noise level in the Great Hall. His ears are still ringing a bit, and he can't understand what's happening.  
***Ron  
Ron Weasley cannot believe it. He, Harry, Hermione, and Neville won them the House Championship! Even Fred and George are cheering for him! They won the house championship!  
***Hermione  
Hermione Granger tries not to look at Draco Malfoy and some of the other Slytherins, because she knows that Gryffindoor shouldn't have won. Slytherins work hard, to see the looks on people's faces as they pass.  
Gryffindoor simply steals the glory.  
***Harry  
When Harry Potter gets off the train and out of Platform 9 3/4, he can see Uncle Vernon waiting for him impatiently, cracking his knuckles.  
***Ron  
Ron Weasley already knows his mum isn't going to listen to a word he says, just because the twins both got an owl sent home.  
***Hermione  
No one is waiting for Hermione Granger at the station.  
***Harry  
Harry gets his ears boxed almost everyday, and otherwise he hides back in the cupboard.  
***Ron  
Ron goes out to explore the land around the Burrow. No one yells for him when it's dinner time.  
***Hermione  
Hermione is mostly left alone, because Mum and Joe are on a vacation. They left her £200 for groceries.


End file.
